Five public meetings to discuss possible tuition hikes for the University of Hawaii system are set for November and December.
The meeting at the University of Hawaii at Hilo will be held from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 16 in Room 101 of the Wai‘olino Building.
UH’s 10-campus system, including UH-Hilo, is proposing to freeze undergraduate tuition for the academic years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, and then raise tuition rates at UH-Hilo, UH-Manoa and UH-Maui College by 2% annually in 2025-2026 and again in 2026-2027.
Nonresident undergraduate tuition rates would increase by the equivalent dollar amount in each of those two academic years, except at the UH-Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law, which would increase by 2% in each of the three years beginning in 2024-25.
UH community college and graduate tuition rates are proposed to be frozen for all four academic years.
Currently, resident undergraduate tuition is $3,836 a semester at UH-Hilo.
The proposed tuition increase would boost revenue for UH, which receives approximately $400 million annually from its 10 campuses.
According to a news release, the UH administration might revise the proposed schedule based on testimony received.
After the public meetings are completed on Dec. 1, the administration will submit a tuition proposal to the Board of Regents for approval, along with a summary of testimony submitted.
The proposal will be considered in early 2023, when the public has another opportunity to provide testimony about the decision.
The last time tuition rates were raised by the Board of Regents was in the 2016-2017 academic year, when resident undergraduate rates increased to 2% in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. Tuition has been frozen since 2020.
More information on the proposal can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/4je4dst7, and additional feedback can be submitted via a Google form available here: https://forms.gle/ENmjwLsU17s1nNiG7.
